7 Tips to Increase ROI on Direct Mail

Direct mail can be a very effective marketing tool to reach new customers as well as remind your current customers about your company. We’ve already discussed ways to create effective direct mail pieces. You can read that blog here. Now let’s talk about return on investment (ROI). There are things you can do to boost your response rate on direct mail, and that’s the ultimate goal, isn’t it? What are some extra steps you can take to attract a higher response rate?

Here are 7 tips to track and try to increase your ROI on direct mail:

1. Create a Unique Offer.

Unique offers drive responses. Unique offers can be a percentage off a product or service, a buy one get one free deal, or anything else you can come up with. Make sure your offer is big enough to be enticing, to drive action, and that it’s not the same offer advertised using other mediums. This will give you the chance to provide a unique promo code on your direct mail pieces, which will help you track your responses and ROI.

2. Create a Unique Landing Page, Email Account or Phone Number to Call for Response.

On your direct mail piece, you should refer a customer to respond in a convenient way, whether through a website, phone number or email. The easier it is to redeem an offer from direct mail, the better. To track your ROI, you are going to want to use a unique landing page on your website, a unique email account or a unique phone number to measure responses.

3. Target.

Finding the best target audience for your direct mail campaign is going to help you convert more sales. The more specific the audience, the better. Instead of casting a wide net and spending money on sending direct mail to customers unlikely to buy your product or service, you should send it to people more likely to respond. Is your product or service geared toward homeowners? Males? Females? Higher incomes? Certain zip codes? Create a targeted list of recipients to make your message count the most.

4. Personalize.

Personalize your offer or message to your target audiences. Always address the recipient by name for courtesy and professionalism. Target your special offers for each one of your audiences. For instance, if you are a jewelry retailer you might send a direct mail piece for earrings to a female and cufflinks to a male. Variable data allows different messages and offers to go to different customers. You can learn more about personalizing with variable data by clicking here.

5. Send Follow-up Direct Mail Pieces.

One and done, as the saying goes, has been shown to not be as effective in driving conversions. Make sure you are following up on direct mail campaigns with additional direct mail campaigns. The more times a customer is introduced to your brand and messaging, the more credible your company and offer become and the higher likelihood there is for a response. It’s also a great reminder in case they meant to respond and forgot.

6. Consider Postage and Mailing.

One of the ways to increase ROI is simply to reduce cost. Save on postage by using bulk rates. Direct mail companies can help you determine ways to save money through mailing. Keep in mind, different size direct mail pieces cost different amounts to mail. You will want to balance cost with appeal. For instance, a smaller postcard will cost less to mail but may get lost in the shuffle. Find a balance of appeal to customers and budget, and utilize direct mail companies’ postage discounts.

7. Retarget.

If your direct mail campaign led the potential customer to type in your website url but did not lead to a buy or conversion, you can retarget them. Using online ad campaigns such as Google Adwords remarketing or Facebook ad retargeting, you can reach the customers who have shown interest in your product or service but did not buy. This gives you an even better target group of customers to address in your advertising, because they’ve already shown interest in your company but perhaps they weren’t ready to buy at that particular time. You can also retarget with follow-up direct mail campaigns.

These are just a few options, but there are many other ways to drive conversions and improve response. Work closely with a direct mail company to find individual ways to improve your campaign’s performance.

Figure out how much money was generated from the campaign. You will have needed to track your leads with special promo codes or phone numbers.

Add up the costs of your direct mail campaign including graphic design, printing and postage.

Subtract the total spent from the total sales made to see how much money you made. Keep in mind that repetition will help to brand your company and achieve better results over time. Make sure to leave a long enough window for tracking response. For instance, tracking 30 days after a campaign ends will give you a better picture of impact than 7 days after a campaign.

Preferred Direct is a commercial printer and direct mail marketing company providing design, print, targeting and mailing services. To speak to a project manager call -844-719-1848, or click here for an online quote.

At Preferred Direct, we make sure to keep your cost down. You will have a project manager who keeps your print jobs on track. Our project managers stay on top of your print jobs and can answer any questions you have along the way. We even provide emergency print services for those fast approaching deadlines. We also provide tracking so you can be assured that your shipment is arriving in a timely manner. Our Xerox Impika® and HP-T240 printers are top-of-the-line machines that print quality materials fast, ultimately saving you time and money. When choosing a commercial printing company, you can count on Preferred Direct to be cost effective, speedy, and customer-friendly.

Call us toll-free today at 1-844-719-1848 or click here for an online quote.

Sources: ballantine.com, dmedelivers.com, under30ceo.com

Images courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net by Stuart Miles (profit), digitalart (mailbox) and Stuart Miles (calculate)